2. A
municipality may abandon portions of a project approved by a
bond referendum if the abandonment does not radically alter
the purpose stated in the ballot language.

OPINION

HALBROOKS, Judge.

Appellant
challenges the denial with prejudice of her request for a
writ of mandamus, arguing that the district court erred by
(1) declining to compel respondent Stillwater Area Public
Schools, Independent School District 834 (the school
district) to obtain voter approval on planned changes to its
use of bond proceeds and (2) concluding that it did not have
authority to issue a writ of mandamus to direct the school
district to hold another bond referendum. Because, pursuant
to Minn. Stat. § 475.58, subd. 4, the ballot language
alone defines the scope of the purpose of a bond referendum
and because a municipality may make minor changes to an
approved project without holding another bond referendum, we
affirm.

FACTS

In
November 2014, the school district[1] reviewed a report and recommendation
regarding its current and future facility needs. Based on
this report, the school district submitted a proposed project
to the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) for review and
comment in February 2015, and it resolved to seek voter
approval for the proposed project through a bond referendum.
A summary of the school district's proposed project
stated, "The bond referendum will be a single-question
in the amount of $97, 500, 000, based on the following key
project components." (Emphasis omitted.) The school
district's key project components included plans to spend
$9, 809, 250 on upgrades to playground surfaces, pre-school
rooms, and HVAC systems at various facilities, and also to
reconfigure rooms at existing elementary schools.

The MDE
provided a positive review and comment. Relevant to this
appeal, the MDE summarized cost estimates for the following
elementary schools by project type and location:

Marine Elementary

Playground Improvements

$101, 000

Renovations

$25, 000

Fees / FF&E / Contingency

$45, 019

$171, 019

Oak Park Elementary

HVAC Upgrades

$1, 100, 000

Playground Improvements

$101, 000

Renovations

$25, 000

Fees / FF&E / Contingency

$438, 042

$1, 664, 042

Withrow Elementary

Playground Improvements

$101, 000

Renovations

$25, 000

Fees / FF&E / Contingency

$45, 019

$171, 019

And the
MDE directed the school district to "publish a summary
of the review and comment statement . . . in the legal
newspaper of the district . . . prior to holding a referendum
for bonds."

The
school district published a summary of the project and the
MDE's review and comment that included publication of the
cost estimates outlined above. The school district also
published additional materials highlighting the planned
changes to Withrow, Marine, and Oak Park elementary schools
on each school's website. No publication announced or
referenced any school closure.

On May
12, 2015, the school district held a bond referendum and
asked if voters would authorize it to issue a bond in an
amount not to exceed $97, 500, 000. A majority of the voters
approved the bond referendum.

Less
than one year later, the school district resolved to close
Withrow, Marine, and Oak Park elementary schools by the end
of the 2016-2017 school year. The school district's
decision to close these schools was challenged in a separate
legal action. This court upheld the school district's
decision, concluding that the resolution to close these
schools was valid. 834 VOICE v. Indep. Sch. Dist. No.
834, 893 N.W.2d 649, 658 (Minn.App. 2017), review
denied (Minn. May 19, 2017). Because these schools were
scheduled to close by the end of the 2016-2017 school year,
the school district decided not to make any of the proposed
improvements to Withrow and Marine elementary schools and not
to make the playground improvements at Oak Park Elementary
School, which it planned to convert to an administrative
facility.

Appellant
Melissa Douglas petitioned for a writ of mandamus, asking the
district court to direct the school district to hold another
bond referendum. Douglas's basis for the writ was that
the school district planned to use the bond proceeds for a
different purpose once it resolved to close the three
elementary schools. The school district moved to dismiss
Douglas's petition or, in the alternative, for summary
judgment.

After a
hearing, the district court granted summary judgment to the
school district and dismissed Douglas's petition with
prejudice. It concluded that the school district did not need
to hold another bond referendum because its decisions to
abandon playground improvements at the elementary schools and
to repurpose Oak Park from an elementary school into an
administrative facility were not different from the purpose
of the bond referendum. The district court also held that it
had no authority to order a writ of mandamus to compel
another bond referendum. This appeal follows.

ISSUES

I. Did
the district court err in determining that the school
district did not need to hold another bond referendum?

II. Did
the district court err in concluding that it did not have the
authority to grant a writ of mandamus to require the school
...

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